Thursday, 12 May 2016

Rare and Unusual Plant Fair

When I saw that the RHS
Malvern Spring Festival was on I knew Monty Don would be featuring it
on last week's Gardeners' World. I've never been to a garden
show before as the dates and location have never worked out for me.
As an alternative to the big RHS shows there's a vast selection of
plant fairs happening each weekend round the country.

On Sunday it was the turn of
Renishaw Hall and Gardens to host a Rare and Unusual Fair. It's an
event they have been hosting for many years now but it's over 10
years since we last went to one. You might not get the wow factor of
a big show but it is a great way to source something different.

One of the advantages of
these plant fairs is that being small scale they don't cost much to
go. This one was £2 per person each with children free. As we have a
season ticket to Renishaw Hall and Gardens it didn't cost us
anything.

With the sun beating down
the show was packed with visitors. It didn't stop us from being able
to look at the stalls easily. With so many stalls there was something
different at each one. It's also a great way to to get specialist
advice from the growers.

Did we buy anything? Of
course we did! I spotted these two pots. One is full of cauliflower
seedlings and the other contains the lettuce Webbs Wonderful. They
were priced at just 50p and the stallholder told us they were left
over from a charity sale he had done the day before. At 50p you
couldn't buy a packet of seeds for that and just shows that there are
real bargains to be found.

I also bought a pot of lemon
thyme as my one from last year is looking rather woody now. I didn't
find the lemon balm or lemon verbena I was after so the search
continues...

6 comments:

I love a plant sale, especially smaller ones like this. Like you say, you can pick up some real bargains. Our village had one on Saturday and I bought a massive geranium and a cucumber plant for £1.50! Enjoy your lemon thyme :)

Love the look of this - you must of been in heaven!It's never occurred to me to grow lettuce in a pot before but it would make a cool change on my kitchen window in the sunshine - I am ON IT :)Thanks for sharing - and inspiring x

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